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Martin Scorsese’s documentary about Pope Francis is to have its world premiere in the Vatican today as one of a set of events commemorating the first anniversary of Francis’s death.
The screening of the film, titled Aldeas, The Final Dream of Pope Francis, is being staged by Scholas Occurrentes, an international organisation aiming to “to encourage social integration and the culture of encounter through sports, arts and technology”, which was set up in Argentina by Francis in 2001 while he was Archbishop of Buenos Aires, and made into a foundation when he became pope in 2013.
Scorsese announced the film, which he has co-directed with Johnny Shipley and Clare Tavernor, shortly after Francis’s death in April 2025, saying it would contain the pope’s last in-depth on-camera interview. Originally titled Aldeas – A New Story, the film will outline Scholas Occurrentes’ Aldeas “community cinema movement” which Francis described before his death as “go[ing] to the roots of what human life is, human sociability, human conflicts ... the essence of a life’s journey”.
At the time Scorsese said: “Now, more than ever, we need to talk to each other, listen to one another cross-culturally … It was important to Pope Francis for people across the globe to exchange ideas with respect while also preserving their cultural identity, and cinema is the best medium to do that.”
The screening comes at a time of increasing tension between the US government and the papacy, after Pope Leo appeared to criticise the US and Israel’s attack on Iran. President Donald Trump attacked Leo in a social media post, and posted an image of himself as a Jesus-like figure, which was later deleted, while vice-president JD Vance said “the pope [needed] to be careful when he talks about matters of theology”.
Scorsese and Francis met a number of times, with Scorsese initiating an increasing number of religious-themed projects in recent years, including Silence, his 2016 adaptation of Shūsaku Endō’s novel about Jesuit missionaries in Japan, and his 2024 TV series The Saints.
